Chapter Seventeen

"Well, the kid's good at disappearing, you'll have to give him that." Nightwing commented to Robin as the two of them sat perched on a roof several yards away from a quiet warehouse. Robin rolled his eyes and shook his head. He was hoping for a quiet stakeout.

"Yeah, he's good. He's gone and he doesn't want to be found. We've had this conversation before, Nightwing." he glared at his older brother. "Many times."

Nightwing shrugged his shoulders helplessly. "What? I'm curious about him! He came, befriended Robin..."

"Tim Drake." Robin interjected.

"Alright, he befriended Tim Drake, he escaped Oracle's grand cybertraps of doom..."

"Although, just by a margin." Oracle interrupted him this time.

"He foiled an assassination attempt on Bruce Wayne..."

"While ironically causing more damage than he assassin himself."

"He saved yours and Batman's life."

"And caused many headaches by flitting from Leslie, to the Bats, and to Catwoman for medical supplies."

"He stopped a plane boarding hundreds of people from blowing up, parachuted out of the plane, and disappeared from under Superman's nose... Superman! Can you imagine?"

"The look on Superman's face? Or, him jumping out of a plane?" Robin quipped.

"Not to mention that his dark past has gained Batman's sympathy... not like he'd ever say it." Nightwing's eyes widened.

"Woah, really! How come I haven't heard of this?"

"Personal secrets and identities. You know how Batman is about that."

"You know how I am about what?" Nightwing and Robin jumped when the caped crusader spoke up from behind them, voice booming in all his fearful authority.

"N-nothing Sir." Nightwing stuttered, Batman just shrugged his shoulders and focused on the warehouse.

"Any movement?"

At Arkham Asylum...

Aaron Cash liked him, he was always friendly when he was lucid. Sometimes they would just sit around and talk, sometimes they'd play card games. Sometimes the patient would ask where he was and what he was doing in a place like the Arkham Asylum. At times like that, Cash would wonder why too. The kid was an amnesic and the authorities didn't know where else to put him. The staff dubbed him Acer Maplestone. When asked where the name originated from, Cash brought in a few leaves of the Acer Palmatum that had been found on the boy's person, to show him, and he correctly identified it as a Japanese Maple leaf, a 'momiji'. Cash decided he was from Japan, he looked Japanese.

He was calm for most of the time, sometimes Cash even forgot that he had amnesia. He was so normal, he functioned like a regular kid. But then there were the nightmares. He would scream, thrash, and attack people in his sleep. The staff sometimes had to sedate him with enough drugs to put Bane's lights out to keep him from killing someone. Sometimes he was dangerous. Cash couldn't deny that, he still had bruises on his neck where the kid had tried to strangle him. Damn near killed him, too. But this time, he was fully conscious and aware of his actions. He killed one doctor and injured seven guards. He needed to be put in a more secure cell.

The guards led a chained Acer down the halls of cells. They passed Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, ... Acer had given up matching faces with names after that. They finally reached an empty cell and led him inside. "Oh? A new guy!" The Joker grinned from the next cell, happy to have a mate. The guards ignored the insane man and left, leaving the chains on the boy's limbs.

"Make yourself comfortable." One of the guards sneered at the boy. Acer just sat down on the edge of his hard bed, hands folded loosely in his lap and tilting his head to the side as if wondering why a heavily injured Killer Croc, who was in the cell across the hall, was snarling at him warily.

"Hey! New guy! What's your name?" The Joker called out to him eagerly. Acer raised his eyes to meet the man's

"They call me Acer Maplestone, here." He stood back up and walked to the wall he shared with The Joker. "In the streets of Gotham City, they called me Allen Smitheson." He pulled out a paper clip that was hidden in his sleeve. "Alot of people who employ me call me Drake." He smiled at The Joker as he easily unlocked his manacles, letting them fall into a mound of metal at his feet. "Just call me Harry Houdini." He smiled widely at the man.

The Joker seemed momentarily startled by Acer's lack of fear for him and just watched, mouth agape as Acer pulled out a deck of playing cards. He winked at The Joker and swiped the mechanical lock on his cell with a blank card. The door swung open. "You, Mr-Clown-Prince-of-Crime, are very lucky I was hired to break you out of here before I'd left the continent." He unlocked The Joker's door and let him out. "A hefty price for your freedom too, Joker. Feel free to get arrested anytime." Acer guided The Joker to the planned escapeway and disappeared into the shadows.

"Hm, learning a few tricks from ol' Batsy, eh?" The Joker mused as he stretched and popped a few stiff joints. "Ahh! But it's good to be back!" He sighed satisfactorily. "Let's have a part-tay!"